Page 66 of Lethal Alliance

I wait until he’s had a few good mouthfuls, then knock the bottle out of his hands.

“This is as good as the next few hours are going to get, Nikolai, so make the fucking most of it.”

His bloodshot, exhausted eyes are full of resentment when he raises them to me. “I didn’t know about the bomb, Roman. Neither did Inger. We just wanted to run away together, with Masha. I thought she was my daughter.” He scowls. “Inger told me she was.”

I look at the men standing around the edges of the warehouse. I don’t want witnesses to the rest of this conversation.

“Everyone out,” I order curtly. The men file out without a second look, except for Dimitry. He knows the order didn’t apply to him.

I wait until the door has closed before turning back to Nikolai. “You thought Masha was your daughter, so you decided to fuckingkidnapher?” I only just resist the urge to add to his bruises. “Way to start your journey into fatherhood, Nikolai. Risk Masha’s life, not to mention Mickey’s and Ofelia’s, by blowing up the ballroom, then hand two innocent children over to the most sadistic bastard in Miami. What the fuck were you thinking?”

He’s shaking his head. “It was supposed to be just Masha, but Ofelia was with her when the bomb went off. We didn’t know about the bomb, Roman, I swear it. Inger and I planned to take Masha and get straight on theGuapa. Orlov told us he’d bought it for us as a present. He said he’d help us get it to Miami, but after the explosion, he said there had been a change of plans.”

“And you believed this shit?” I’m so dumbstruck I’m almost speechless. “Why the fuck would Orlov help you and Inger?”

“Because he’s an old friend of our family.” Nikolai scowls at me. “And because, like a lot of Papa’s old friends, he doesn’t like what happened to the Stevanovsky clan after you took over.”

A friend of the family?

Dimitry and I exchange a silent look. This is fucking news to me. I’ve never spoken about the Orlovs to Yuri, but I know most of his contacts. If that name had ever come up, I’d have fucking remembered it.

“Since when are the Orlovs old family friends?” My eyes narrow on Nikolai like a laser.

“I don’t know.” He tries to shrug, winces. “Always, I guess, not that we had Christmas together or anything. I don’t think Inger was lying about Masha,” he adds, like I could give a single fuck. “She believed Orlov’s promises too.”

I actually laugh out loud at that. “You’re an idiot if you believe that, Nikolai. Inger has been fucking Orlov for years.” He flinches as if he’s been hit, and I go on, taking a perverse pleasure in twisting the emotional dagger. “She’s probably fucking him right now and laughing at how stupid you were to help her.”

Nikolai shakes his head. “No, Roman. You’re wrong.” He tilts his head toward the torn, bloody suit jacket lying on the floor nearby. “Look in the pocket.”

I nod at Dimitry, who picks the jacket up and shakes it out. A small bundle falls out, tumbling to the concrete floor with an audible thud. He picks it up and begins to unravel it, but we both already know what we’re about to see.

Inger’s red-nailed finger falls onto a nearby table, still wearing the enormous diamond ring Mikhail gave her on their engagement.

“He made us watch.” Nikolai’s voice cracks. “The girls and me. Inger was crying, screaming for him to stop.”

He made them watch their mother scream in pain.

I might loathe and despise Inger, but that doesn’t lessen my horror at the girls being subjected to her suffering.

“Whatever attack you’re planning, Roman, don’t.” His voice is hoarse and broken. “Orlov is expecting you. He’s got an army guarding that underground bunker. And the whole thing is wired to blow.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” I resist the urge to add to Nikolai’s scars. I don’t have time for this shit. “Just tell me what the fucker wants. You said you would only talk to me. So talk.”

“Orlov gave me a message for you.” He spits out a glob of blood and mucus, eyeing me sullenly. “He wants the vault open. He said to come to Miami with your key and Darya Petrovsky, or he’ll kill the girls.” Nikolai swallows painfully. “If you try anything, anything at all, he will kill them. Starting with Ofelia.” He squints up at me. “He said you know why he’s going to kill Ofelia first.”

The instant flash of rage I feel is so lethal I almost kill Nikolai then and there, just to murder something. Someone.

He has my daughters.I don’t give a fuck what the DNA test says. They are both my girls. The fact that Orlov thinks it matters to me which of them he threatens tells me exactly how lacking in conscience he is.

His demands are nothing less than what I expected. And yet hearing them affects me more than I thought it would.

He will kill the girls.

I don’t have the luxury of believing Orlov might be bluffing. Iknowwhat he’s capable of. And he’s been waiting for this a long time.

Rage and a sickening fear churn like acid inside me.

Nikolai’s face swims back into focus.

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